1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a transplanter capable of transplanting seedlings without error by automatically selecting the seedlings grown in paper tubes to be transplanted and supplying only the superior seedlings selected to the seedling planting element of the transplanter.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Seedlings grown in paper tubes are widely used for planting in the field, for which many suitable transplanters have been developed. Seedlings in paper tubes are prepared by filling soil into the individual tubes of a honeycomb arrangement of tubes and planting 1 to 3 seeds into the soil which are then grown in a hot bed or cold bed. The seeds, by this cultivation, do not always germinate and sometimes leaf defects occur because of disease and damage from insects, which results in the appearance of some inferior seedlings. Such inferior seedlings, when transplanted to the field results in the missplanting and delayed growth, with a corresponding decreased yield.
It has been known to manually separate the paper tubes before planting, or for an operator to place the seedlings in order on a converyor of the transplanter from which inferior ones are removed by hand. But such a selection procedure is extremely troublesome and requires much time and labor, which results in operator's fatigue and a decreased capacity of the transplanter itself because of the manual labor required.